The Evanston (Illinois) Index

1885: January 24

TWAIN AND CABLE.

A large and well-pleased audience listened with interest to George W.
Cable last Monday night, and roared with laughter at every appearance
of Mark Twain. Mr. Cable's selections were all from "Dr. Sevier," and
while the character sketches were interesting, they were in one sense
disappointing. Mr. Cable is associated in the general mind with his
Creole sketches and dialect, which have given him such widespread fame,
but, with the exception of Narcisse in the first number, he introduced
neither Creole characters nor descriptions. He made one pleasing deviation
from the program in substituting songs picked up when he was a boy, in
the New Orleans market place, for one of the numbers. He has a good voice,
and sang the odd and weird airs with spirit and expression. If he had
brought out Narcisse once more and omitted "Mary's Night Ride," it would
have been still more acceptable, as the grace and power of his descriptive
writing loses some of its charm when vocally hurled at an audience.

Mr. Clemens, or "Mark Twain," was at his best, and kept the audience
convulsed from the time he commenced with "King Sollermun," to the loss
of the golden arm. His quiet, drawling manner and perfectly immovable
face lend an additional zest to the ludicrous things he says. He does
not at any time stick to his text, but if the audience is appreciative,
as this one was, he touches up the things that seem to take best. It
was hard to determine which provoked the most laughter, the struggle
with German grammar, "Huck Finn," "A Trying Situation," or "Who's Got My
Golden Arm." In the latter, the painfully intense hush caused by the
speaker's dropping his voice almost to a whisper, was broken by his
shouting "You have," so loud as to bring the audience to their feet,
and before he could reseat themselves he had bowed "good night" and
left the stage. Both gentlemen were frequently recalled and gracefully
responded.